The Brookhaven leader., 1887-07-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher at 1.-THE
Hamptons."
a Discourse on Pauls Departure from
Earth to the GlorIes Beyond
The Apostles Final Triumph
Over Death.


taking for his topic "From Dungeon to
Palace" His text was:
The time Of my departure is at hand
Timothy, iv., 0.
The way out Of this world is so blocked
up with coffin and hearse, and under
takers spade and screw-drlver, that the
Christian can hardly think as he ought Of
the most cheerful passage in all his his
tory. We hang black instead of white
over the place where the good man gets
his last victory. We stand weeping over
a heap of chains which the freed soul has
shaken off, and we say:
"Poor mani What a pity it was he had
to come to this ~
Cometo whatl By the time the people
have Assem- bled at the obsequies that
man has been three days SO happy that
all the joys Of earth accumulated would
be wretchedness beside it, and he ight
better weep over you because you have
to stay than you weep over him be-
cause he had to go. 1t is fortunate
thing that good man does not have to
wait to see his own obsequles; they would
be so discordant with his own experience.
II the Israelites should 90 back to Egypt
and mourn over the k-kilns they once
left, they would not be any more silly
than that Christian who should forsake
Heaven and come down and mourn be-
cause he had to leave this world. Our
idea of Christians death are morbid
and sickly. We look upon it as a dark
hole in which a man tumbles when his
breath gives out. The whole subject is
odorous with varnish and disinfectants
instead OF being sweet with mignOnette.
Paul, in my text, takes that great clod Of
a word death" and throws it away, and
speaks of his dcparture"-b beautiful,
bright, suggestive word, descriptive Of
every Christians release.
Now, departure implies q starting place
and place of destination. When Paul
left this world, what was the starting
point! II was a scenCc of great physical
distress. 1t was the Tullianum, the lower
dungeon of the Mamertine prison. The
top dungeon was bad enough, it having
no means Of inGress or egress but through
an opening in the top. Through that the
prisoner was lowered, and through that
came all the TODD and air and light re.
ceved. 1t was terrible place, that up
per dungeon; but the Tallianum was the
lower dungeon, and that was still more
wretched, the only light and the only air
coming through the roof, and that roof
the floor of the upper dungeon.
1t was dungeon just six and half feet
high. 1t was a doleful place, 1t had the
chill of long centuries of dampness. 1t
was filthy with tho long incarcerations
of miserable wretches. 1t was there that
Paul spent his last days on
earth, and it is there that l see him to-
day, in the fearful dungeon, shivering,
blue with cold, waiting for that old over
coat which he had sent for up to Troas,
and which they had not sent down, not
with standing he had written for it.
If some skilful surgeon should go into
that dungeon where Paul is inCarcerated,
we might find out what are the prospects
of Paul's living through the rough i'm
prisonmont. In the first place, he is an old
man, only two years short of seventy. At
that very time when he most needs the
warmth, and the sunlight, and the fresh
air, he is shut out from the sun. What
are those scars on his ankles2 Why,
those were gotten when he was fast, his
feet in the stocks. Every time he turned
the flesh on his ankles started. What
are those scars on his backi You know
he was whipped five times, each time get
ting thirty-nine strokes-one hun
dred and ninety five bruises on the
back Count themD made by the
one of the one hundred and ninety five
strokes bringing the blood. Look at Paul. s
face and look at his arms! Who're did he
get those bruises2 l think it was when
he was struggling ashore amidst the
shivered timbers of tho shipwreck. ! see
a cash in PauPs side. Where did he get
that2 / think he got that in the tussle
with the highwaymen, for he had been in
peril of robbers, and he had money of his
own. He was a mechanic as we'll as an
apostle, and l think the tents he made
were as good as his sermons.
There is a wanness about Paul's looks.
What makes that9 think part Of that
came from the fact that he was for
twenty-four hours on plank in the Med
aterranean sea, suffering terribly before
he was rescued; for he says, positively:
~ was a night and day in the deep"
oh, worn-out, emaciated old mani sure
ly you must be melancholy; no constitu-
tion could endure this and be cheerful
But i press my way through the prison
until come up close to where he is; and
by the faint light that streams through
the opening see on his face supernat-
ural Joy, and bow before him aud say:
"Aged man, how can you keep cheerful
amid all this gloom?'
His voice startles the darkness OF the
place as he cries out
lam now ready to be offered, and the time OF
my departure is at hand.
Harkl what is that shutting OF feet in
the upper dungeon? Why, Paul has an
invitation to a banquet, and he is going to
dine to-day with the King. Those shuf-
fling feet are the feet of the executioners.
They come, and they cry down through
the hole of the dungeon.
Hurry up, old man. Come now; get
yourself ready"
Why, Paul was ready. He had nothing
to pack up. He had no baggage to take.
He had been ready a good while. see
him rising up and Strengthening out his
stiffened limbs, an pushing back his
white hair from his creviced forehead,
and see him looking up through the hole
in the roof of the dungeon into the face Of
his executioner. and hear him say:
lam now ready to b offered, and the time of
my departure is at hand.
Then they lift him out of the dungeon,
and they start with him to the place OF
execution. They say:
Hurry along, old man, or you will feel
the weight of our spears. hurry along"
"How far is it." says Paul, I'VE have to
travels"
Three miles"
Three miles is a good way for an old
man to travel after he has been whipped
and crippled with maltreatment But
they soon get to the place OF execution
Acau@ Salvia-and he is fastened to the
pillar of martyrdom. 1t does not take any
strength to tie him fast. He makes no.
resistance. o PAUL. why not strike for
your lifel You have great many friends
hare With that Mithered hand Just